10 May Tussles Worth Watching

Looking back at recent weeks and months, one can truly say mixed
martial arts has become a global phenomenon. Major credit is due
the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, which has done a fantastic job
of opening new markets in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and
South America, but domestic promotions continue to increase the
quality of their product, as well. In 2012, one can find quality
MMA from Bahrain and Sweden to Canada and Russia, provided one
knows where to look.

In this monthly series, we take fans around the globe in an effort
to broaden their MMA horizons, showcasing the best fights and
fighters that might not get much attention otherwise. This month,
we feature the return of the talented but enigmatic Anthony
Johnson, who was shown the door by the UFC after he failed to
make weight for his ill-fated showdown with Vitor
Belfort in January.

As always, the list does not focus on the well-promoted main
event bouts from major organizations you already know to watch, but
rather on fights from all over the planet that are worth seeing.
The UFC, Strikeforce
and
Bellator Fighting Championships cards are excluded by
design.

Three strikes and you are out. After missing weight for his fights
against Rich
Clementi and Yoshiyuki
Yoshida, the whopping 12 pounds by which “Rumble” Johnson
exceeded the middleweight limit for his UFC 142 matchup with
Belfort were the final straw. The incident made UFC President Dana
White furious and sent Johnson out of the UFC despite five of his
six wins inside the promotion coming by knockout. He will now try
to bounce back against another Zuffa LLC outcast in Branch. The
Renzo
Gracie black belt is 2-0 after being given the boot in March
2011 and wields a huge reach for a middleweight.

Accomplished wrestler Coy used his strong takedowns and top control
to shut down the game of highly touted prospect Dhiego Lima
in January. Now, the 33-year-old
American Top Team fighter gets to face another promising
up-and-comer in McGillivray. “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 13 alum
won his return fight with the MFC in January, as he submitted the
previously undefeated Diego
Bautista. The young Canadian is going into the fight against
Coy as a heavy underdog. Can he pull off the upset?

The Cage Warriors Fighting Championship 2012 World Tour continues.
Originally, the United Kingdom promotion’s sixth stop this year was
slated for desert country Qatar. Instead, it has now opted for the
island state of Bahrain. In the main event of CWFC’s fourth Middle
East show of 2012, French champion Grimaud will defend his
welterweight title against UFC and Strikeforce veteran Taylor. “JT
Money” had a mixed 2011, with a submission win over Denis Kang and
two submission losses to Hector
Lombard and Mamed
Khalidov. Grimaud has won five straight.

Russian Malikov, 28, rose to fame overnight when he knocked out
former Top 10-ranked heavyweight Aleksander
Emelianenko in just 23 seconds in November. In the absence of
still-injured champion Guram
Gugenishvili, the teammate of M-1 Global
welterweight champion Rashid
Magomedov and middleweight champion Magomed
Sultanakhmedov will now fight former title contender Garner for
the promotion’s interim heavyweight strap. The American put
together a strong 2011 campaign, capped off with a fifth-round
submission of Maxim
Grishin.

In the bona fide bantamweight bout of the month, Shooto pits
its 132-pound champion, Okazaki, against its Pacific Rim champion
and number one challenger, Ogikubo. Seasoned veteran Okazaki won
the strap in April 2011 by knocking out previous titleholder
Shuichiro
Katsumura. Ogikubo, seven years the champion’s junior, punched
his ticket for the title fight with a hard-fought decision victory
over eccentric submission specialist Tetsu
Suzuki.
The winner will likely put himself in position for even bigger
tasks stateside.

These two serious contenders in the Scandinavian fight scene were
criminally overlooked for UFC berths last month and will duke it
out in the return of The Zone FC. Gothenburg’s most prominent
promotion took a one-year hiatus and will come back with a stellar
card. Well-rounded Troeng was last seen finishing a pair of Czechs
late last year, while master grappler Nilsson made an impressive
Cage Warriors debut in February, submitting “The Ultimate Fighter”
Season 6 finalist Tom Speer
before sweeping away Dream veteran Alavutdin
Gadjiev in just 24 seconds a month later.

Old school versus new school is the theme of Pure MMA’s sophomore
event, as nine-time UFC veteran Thomas fights red-hot California
prospect Bollinger in the headliner. “Dinyero” has been sidelined
for a whopping 28 months due to various cancelled fights, smaller
and more serious injuries and a car accident. Bollinger has been
active, winning six out of seven fights in that same period,
including his first high-profile win over “The Ultimate Fighter”
alum Cameron
Dollar. Can Bollinger’s wrestling shut down Thomas’s jiu-jitsu
game?

With “freak fights” being as popular as ever in many parts of the
world, Indian promotion SFL has taken the plunge and booked former
World Wrestling Entertainment star Lashley to fight
Pride Fighting Championships veteran James
Thompson. After an unprecedented losing streak of 12 of 15
fights from 2006-10, “The Colossus” has rebounded with a highly
controversial pair of fights against Polish strongman Mariusz
Pudzianowski and a submission of Bob Sapp in
SFL’s inaugural show. Lashley had trouble securing fights in 2011
but ultimately won the Shark Fights heavyweight title in
November.

In this month’s featured female fight, reigning Jewels 115-pound
champion Hamasaki makes the second defense of her title against
25-fight veteran Tsuji. The challenger was the longtime Smackgirl
lightweight champion and the Valkyrie featherweight champion --
until she dropped the belt to Mei
Yamaguchi in a rare submission defeat. Tsuji has been in the
game for more than 10 years and possesses far more experience
Hamasaki, who has only been fighting professionally since 2009.

Stockholm’s Globe Arena is becoming a place of pilgrimage for
martial arts. Only six weeks after the UFC hosted its Scandinavian
debut at the 16,000-seat orb, Glory teams up with Swedish promoter
Rumble of the Kings to stage the first round of a 155-pound muay
Thai tournament. They also drop in a little gem for the MMA fans,
as former Pride star Sergei
Kharitonov battles King of
the Cage heavyweight champion Lopez. “Kryptonite” has been
hunting down top-ranked Russians as of late, submitting Dmitry
Zabolotny and Shamil
Abdurahimov last year.

Follow Tim Leidecker on Twitter at @TimLeidecker or contact him
at www.facebook.com/Rossonero1.